Registration time: Charlemagne Youth Prize 2015 opens for applications

Are you 16-30 years old and do you run a project with a European dimension? From 2 December projects promoting Europe among young people can start competing for the 8th Charlemagne Youth Prize. Winning projects will not only benefit from recognition and media coverage, but also from prize money to further develop the initiative. You have until 2 February 2015 to register for the 2015 edition.

The Charlemagne Youth Prize is organised by the European Parliament and the International Charlemagne Prize Foundation in Aachen and awarded each year for projects run by people aged between 16 and 30. The winning projects should provide models for young people living in Europe and offer practical examples of Europeans living together.

The three winning projects will be awarded €5,000, €3,000, and €2,000 respectively. Their representatives will be invited to visit the European Parliament in Brussels or Strasbourg in the autumn. Representatives of the 28 national winning projects will be invited to the Charlemagne Youth Prize award ceremony and the International Charlemagne Prize of the City of Aachen award ceremony two days later during a four-day trip to Aachen in May 2015.

2014 winners

Representatives of the three winning projects of 2014 were invited to Brussels to meet President Schulz and other Members of the European Parliament on 1 and 2 December 2014. We asked them about the benefits of the prize and their future plans.

The first prize went to Our Europe, a Danish travel project. They travelled around Europe for 12 months, lived with young people and interviewed them, later publishing the interviews on their website. The prize gave them "a lot of self-confidence" and the will to "fundraise even more for new projects".

The second prize went to the JouwDelft & Co 2012 youth congress from the Netherlands. 55 young people from the whole of Europe gathered for a week to brainstorm on youth and unemployment. The project leaders then wrote a resolution, which was sent to the EP. According to them, the prize "really encourages young people to speak up and to do something".

Third prize went to Employment4U, a training project by the Youth Dynamics organisation from Cyprus. It consisted of workshops and seminars on how to search for work and develop certain skills. They realised that young people are not properly trained in school and their courses do not put them on the right career path. They would like to "become an NGO and do more projects like this one or do it in bigger perspective".